US academic slams Iran president

Why does your country continue to refuse to adhere to international standards for nuclear weapons verification in defiance of agreements that you have made with the UN nuclear agency?

And why have you chosen to make the people of your country vulnerable to the effects of international economic sanctions and threaten to engulf the world with nuclear annihilation?

Let me close with this comment.

Frankly, and in all candour, Mr President, I doubt that you will have the intellectual courage to answer these questions.

But your avoiding them will, in itself, be meaningful to us. I do expect you to exhibit the fanatical mindset that characterises so much of what you say and do.

Fortunately, I am told by experts on your country, that this only further undermines your position in Iran with all the many good-hearted, intelligent citizens there.

A year ago, I am reliably told, your preposterous and belligerent statements in this country (as in your meeting at the Council on Foreign Relations) so embarrassed sensible Iranian citizens that this led to your party's defeat in the December mayoral elections.

May this do that and more.

I am only a professor, who is also a university president, and today I feel all the weight of the modern civilised world yearning to express the revulsion at what you stand for.

I only wish I could do better.